SEO - Meta Tags

Writing Meta Tags

There are two (2) main Meta tags that you'll need to create for the search engines, and for the search visitor. They are: the Meta Keywords tag, and the Meta Description.

Meta Keywords Tag

The Meta Keywords tag has lost a lot of its importance over the years, mostly due to keyword spamming. Webmasters were "stuffing" this tag with the same keyword over and over again in an attempt to outrank their competitors. The search engines became wise to this practice, and have slowly reduced the tags importance in their ranking algorithms. In some cases, the engines have stopped looking at the Keywords tag altogether.

Although the search engines place less importance on the Meta Keywords tag, you should still use it to help optimize your site. The tag has a great purpose, to allow you to add misspellings and other relevant keywords/phrases that you may have been unable to fit in your page content.

Writing your Meta Keywords is probably the easiest of the three (3) to write (Title, Meta Keywords, and Meta Description) because it does play such a small role in the overall optimization.

There is some debate as to whether the Meta Keywords should be broken up with commas, if they should all be listed without commas, etc. The general consensus is to use the commas.

The Meta Keyword tag should be written as follows:

<meta name="keywords" content="keyword 1, keyword 2, etc.">

You should try to keep the number of keywords/phrases used in this tag between 8-15. Your pages will be pretty focused already, so including a lot of broad terms in the Keywords tag is just going to dilute the "message" of the site.

Utilize this tag for common misspellings of your optimized keyword/phrase, different variations of your keyword/phrase, or even closely related keywords/phrases.

Here's an example of a good Meta Keyword tag:

<meta name="keywords" content="mens basketball shoes, men's basketball shoes, bball shoes, indoor, outdoor, high-tops, low-tops, blueline shoes">

You'll want to utilize as many "full" keywords/phrases in the Meta Keywords, but be careful not to include a common keyword/phrase too often. This applies even if the keyword/phrase is part of another, etc.

While not using terms that are too general, we do recommend adding other keywords that combined with your optimized terms, could appear in the search results for other searches. Again, you shouldn't use any one keyword/phrase, such as "basketball shoes" too often, so we've simply omitted that from "indoor" and "outdoor". If adding an unlimited amount of the term "basketball shoes" was ok, we would have used "indoor basketball shoes", etc., but that would border on keyword stuffing/spamming, so we choose to not to do so.

Rather than replacing only the first few keywords/phrases in the Meta Keywords on each page, we recommend using each page for a different set of keywords, so that the overall site covers a much larger selection. A lot of people will simply re-use the last 5-8 keywords/phrases from the previous page and only change the first couple to the new pages optimized terms. While this would work on some sites, it's probably not the best approach. You should use the most relevant keywords/phrases in your Meta Keywords, based on the content of the given page. You should not use keywords/phrases that are irrelevant to the page - they will only get you in trouble.

The optimal setup is to include your keywords/phrases in your Meta Keywords and in the content of the page. This generally gives the page more relevance in the eyes of the search.

Meta Keywords overview

• Don't use more than 8-15 keywords/phrases.
• Use the keywords/phrases that people are searching for, as opposed to guessing.
• Don't repeat the keyword/phrase (keyword stuffing).
• Be careful not to include partial keywords/phrases too often.
• Use keywords/phrases that are present in the body content.
• Use misspellings, or other closely related words that you can't write within the body content.

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Meta Description Tag

The Meta Description tag is still a very important part of the optimization process. Not only does your description get spidered by the search engine robots, it's generally your last opportunity to seize the searchers attention and get them to visit your site. A weak or poorly written Description can cripple your chances of getting the traffic you’re trying to get.

Your Meta Description is the text (summary) that is displayed in the search results, just below your page Title, in many search engines. Because the Title is often not enough to get a visitor to click on your site listing, the Meta Description should compliment the Title and offer sufficient incentive for the visitor to click on your site.

Samples of search engine results where the Meta Description is displayed:

The recent trend has the major search engines parsing content from your page to create the description or page summary (see below). The engines now using this method include: Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Teoma/AskJeeves.

While some search engines, such as Google, do not display your Meta Description, it is still processed as part of the page and included in the overall algorithm for ranking your page. Regardless of the fact that Google doesn't display the Meta Description in their search results, you should still use the tag, because many other search engines do display it in their results. If you choose not to write Meta Descriptions, you'd have to be comfortable with what the search engines choose to display for you; in some cases, they display nothing.

Samples of auto-generated descriptions:

Because of the acceptable length of the Meta Description, this is generally the hardest component to write. As with the Title, the Meta Description should include one (1) or more keywords/phrases, but should also be written in such a way that it entices the searcher to click on your listing and visit your website.

In addition, the keyword/phrases should be used as close to the front of the description as possible. Your description should be no more than 250 characters, roughly 20-30 words, which is about the most that any search engine will display. If it's any longer, it will simply be cropped in the search engine results; you shouldn't be penalized if it's longer.

Be sure to use the main keyword/phrase in the Meta Description that you previously used in the Title and Meta Keywords; everything should be targeted to the keyword phrase you're optimizing for best results.

Your Meta Description should not be just your keywords, listed one after another; it should be written as an enticing summary of your web page or topic.

The format for your Meta Description should be as follows:

<meta name="description" content="your page description here">

Here's a full Meta Description using our "mens basketball shoes" as the topic:

<meta name="description" content="Buy mens basketball shoes at Blueline Shoes. We feature indoor and outdoor basketball shoes, as well as cross-trainers, running, and all-purpose athletic shoes. Wide shoe selection for men, women, and kids.">

Meta Description overview

• As with your Title tags, write unique Meta Descriptions for each page.
• Use the main keyword/phrase as close to the front as possible.
• Don't use more than 20-30 words or over 250 characters.
• Write the description with the visitor in mind; it's your last chance to get them to visit your website.

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